Supernova?

[Little Quacker in OR]

Hey all you lucky homesteaders who live out where there is little or no light Polution! I am seeing a bright object, the brightest thing in the Western Sky right now other than the moon that I say is Venus.

My long time friend in the desert says it's a SuperNova and it has been much brighter and is now fading a bit...I still think it's Venus. Any star watchers out there who knonw? I see it every night when I take dogs out for a last potty break between 9 and 10PM. Am I full of black holes? LOL

thanks! LQ

[hillsidedigger]

Venus is bright in the West after sunset right now.

That incredibly bright Supernova that was reported to be first detected by astronomers a couple of weeks ago actually happened some 240 million years ago, so I doubt you could see it now.

[danoon]

You are seeing Venus as Hillsidedigger said or Saturn. SN 2006gy is thought have been 150 times larger than our sun and the glow of it going supernova is brighter than the galaxy it resided in [ ngc 1260] but can't be seen with the naked eye.

[suburbanite]

Hillside, it happened 240 million years ago but the light is only arriving now, so if it were bright enough to see with the naked eye, you'd be able to see it now. However, it is (was) 240 million light years away, which means despite its initial overwhelming brightness, you need a major observatory to see it from here because it is too dim.

Venus or Saturn is what you're seeing in the western sky.

Now, if Eta Carina goes off, then you'll be able to see *that* supernova from here even during the day-time. Fortunately its pole isn't pointed at us so we won't get fried in the resulting stellar-polar gamma-ray burst.

[EDDIE BUCK]

Not trying to get away from the thread, but all my science teachers never succeeded in getting me to believe when we look at the stars, the light we see,happened millions of years ago and is traveling at the speed of light. I could never understand how the speed was measured. Its going to take a lot of layman terms for me to understand. Anybody want to try? Is it possible the sun has gone out but we just dont know it yet? LOL

[suburbanite]

Eddie, the sun is about 8 light minutes away, so it is possible. But not likely.

[suburbanite]

Here's a link on the measurement of the speed of light.

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic...measure_c.html

[EDDIE BUCK]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

Here's a link on the measurement of the speed of light.

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic...measure_c.html

If it were possible to flip a switch and turn the light from the sun off, the source or fuel would remain. Looking and seeing this source or fuel would be in the present tense not the past. So what effect does the light have on time? I dont see any. Dont forget,timely speaking, we just found out the earth is round and now they tell us what we are seeing is no longer there. Oh well I was afraid this was going to happen. LOL. Come to think of it, if we would shine a light on Washington, I wonder if it would still be there?

[Little Quacker in OR]

Thanks you guys! And thanks for the laughs too! I think we are entering a period where we will be able to see four planets at once plus an astroid with the naked eye. This should be fun!

LQ

[Christiaan]

In the western sky from 8:30 to 9:00 pm you can see three planets: Mercury 5 to 10 degrees above the horizon, Venus 35 degrees above the horizon, and Saturn 60 degrees above the horizon. This configuration should last until late May.
Now if the clouds would only disappear for awhile. Its been overcast for the past four days. Last Tuesday it was 95 off the back deck, since Friday we've barely made it to 55. Ya gotta love Western Washington.

[cchapman84]

If it were possible to flip a switch and turn the light from the sun off, the source or fuel would remain. Looking and seeing this source or fuel would be in the present tense not the past. So what effect does the light have on time?

Light travels at a finite speed. The light that reaches us from the sun is 8 minutes old when it reaches us. Because light can only travel a certain distance over a certain period of time, we don't see it until it actually reaches us. So if something is 100 light years away, it will take 100 years for that light to actually reach us. At that point, because it takes 100 years for the light to get to us, that light is 100 years old. When you start talking about millions and billions of light years, it's likely that the source of that light might not be around anymore.

When we see something, what we're actually seeing is the light reflecting off of that object. Your eyes are just light sensors (kind of like not-so-sensitive night vision goggles). Different kinds of animals (including people) have different sensitivity to light (have you ever noticed how cat's eyes light up at night? That's actually the light that's entering their eyes reflecting back out).

Think of it this way: it takes time for sound waves to travel (which is why you can hear an echo in certain places, it takes time for your voice to travel to a surface, bounce off of that surface, and return to your ears for you to hear). Light is the same way. It takes time for it to go from point A to point B (of course it travels a lot faster than sound).

Hope that this helps!

[danoon]

June 30th at dusk, Saturn and Venus will be less than one degree apart in the western sky right below Leo. That will be a scope night.

[Ed Norman]

If somebody stands across the yard with a water hose pointed at you and squirts the nozzle for a second, then stops, the water will fly thru the air and hit you for a second, even though the hose isn't squirting any more. Light does the same thing.

Or you could spit off a cliff. You could be long gone before your spit hit bottom.

[EDDIE BUCK]

Thanks for trying to get me to understand, But if what you are saying is true, then " time travel" would be a possibility. Meaning if we could travel to the source of that light, we would be younger. Im sure old Ponce De Leon would have liked to have known that, after searching, and searching for THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH in Florida and it was out in space all along. LOL just kidding, but no I cannot believe if a person could travel to the source of that light, they would be younger. I believe they would age. Y our way that person that left would have to meet their self coming back. If you believe that, this discussion is over, because you are too far in left field for me to carry on a conversation. I enjoyed the post though. interesting.

[Greenbeast]

Originally Posted by Ed Norman

If somebody stands across the yard with a water hose pointed at you and squirts the nozzle for a second, then stops, the water will fly thru the air and hit you for a second, even though the hose isn't squirting any more. Light does the same thing.

Or you could spit off a cliff. You could be long gone before your spit hit bottom.

they are two fantastic ways of explainging this, i've never thought of it like that

Eddie buck - no because it would take us time to reach the star.
Even if we could teleport instantaneously it would still be 'now' just a lot further away

[EDDIE BUCK]

In these two examples, the source remains. In space the source is gone with just the light traveling through space.If the light was contained, say in a capsule,I could see it that way, but light goes in all directions at the same time. Thats why we need reflectors on flashlights, to send the light in one direction.But even then, the light starts going in all directions the farther away from the flashlight it gets. The same thing happens with the water example, the farther the water gets from the nozzle, the wider the pattern . Now remove the source, the water stops and the light goes out. If you could come up with a light switch that would let the light stay on after you switch the source off, please let me know, I would like to get a few and put on E-BAY. LOL [ You were warned]

[Greenbeast]

but it takes time for the light to reach the destination after leaving the source

so if the sun was to die out and go cold instantly (which wouldn't happen anyway) then the last bit of light it sends out would take 8 minutes to get to earth, so the sun would be dead 8 minutes before we realised it

[EDDIE BUCK]

And I suppose if you looked at the sun during those 8 mins, you would just see a large donut. As Archie Bunker once said, "SOMEBODIES TRYING TO PULL THE WOLF OVER MY EYES".

[Steve L.]

Originally Posted by EDDIE BUCK

And I suppose if you looked at the sun during those 8 mins, you would just see a large donut. As Archie Bunker once said, "SOMEBODIES TRYING TO PULL THE WOLF OVER MY EYES".

You're right, Eddie, they're just fooling with ya. Radar doesn't work. :baby04:

[Greenbeast]

eddie - are you joking or do you not get this idea, a well proven scientific theorem

if you are serious then....
if you looked at the sun during those 8 minutes you'd just see sunlight, until it went out